International

The club supports two worldwide projects and a third in Malawi - all designed to help people cope with disaster or live a better life.

The club's current major international project is Steka (Step Kids Awareness), which is a grass roots Malawian charity created by Godknows Maseko to provide a
family home for (currently 65) very vulnerable children rescued from
the streets, or from traumatic situations - more details here: https://supportsteka.wordpress.com/

His latest plan is to raise money to help build vocation skills centres, so that as the children grow, they can learn to support themselves, and this is where Portobello Rotary comes in.Club members are supporting Steka and the combination of club fundraising and support from the Portobello community has raised enough for one building. That includes a Rotary District grant and we and working on further grants - in conjunction with other Rotary clubs - to help Godknows' vision.

All grants must be sustainable, and one way in which Steka can do this is by providing meaningful dialogues with young peoplel visiting Malawi. One of the Steka young people, Gift, has been in Scotland for the last six months, learning about sociology, and will return in September to undertake a public sociology degree, provided by Queen Margaret University.

Another international initiative is to purchase Shelterboxes - these boxes are sent to wherever people are suffering from natural disasters like floods, fires or earthquakes and provide all the material people need to make a home, albeit a temporary one - like a tent, cooking materials, solar panels, even pencils and drawing materials for children. . The Shelterbox contact details are here: http://www.shelterbox.org

Finally, the club, like all other Rotary clubs, fundraises for End Polio Now, an initiative to eradicate the horribly crippling disease of polio from the whole world. This is a long term project, but is very close (hopefully) to completion.